OHA Side Story: Energized!
Kabuto lifted up a few items, setting them up to look less of a mess. Thankfully, his strength made the challenge a fairly simple one. It had been about 2 weeks since he'd taken Isabella under his wing. He partially blamed himself for her shortcoming in the Sports Festival, but you need failure to know where to improve. With Kinzoku interning for HOLIDAY, it was much easier for him to focus on Isabella's needs for improvement. Now he was simply waiting for her to show up, then their training could begin. Soft, quick footsteps could be heard nearby as Isabella was jogging along as a warm-up to her training with Kabuto. She was focusing on cycling her breath and keeping her heart rate down as she kept a constant speed. She stopped jogging in front of her teacher, breathing a bit heavier than normal. "Good morning, Sensei," Isabella said as she was gathering her breath. She looked around, noticing that some marks on the ground where items had been just a few minutes before. "Were you setting up for our training?" Isabella asked Kabuto. Kabuto turned to see Isabella, waving to her as she greeted him. "Morning Isabella. Sorta kinda, just being sure this place didn't look to messy ya' know. It's all I've got after all." He ended with a cheerful smile, contradictory to what sounded like a depressing statement. At the end of the day though, he was satisfied with what he had. Noticing Isabella had already begun a work out, Kabuto decided it was best to get the training underway while she was still in action. "So, tell me Isabella, what do you want to work on today?" Isabella thought for a moment to some comments her classmates earlier to each other. "I think I want to try and design some specialty moves. Looking at my fight with Tali, it was clear to me that brute force isn't going to work for every occasion. I need to get smart," Isabella said. She wasn't sure how to proceed in developing her quirk to have specialty moves. She hoped that Kabuto would have a few ideas. "Some special moves eh?" Kabuto erupted into a powerful laughter, placing his hands on his hips in pride. "Those are always fun to come up with, even cooler seeing your hard work pay off during a battle." Kabuto looked at Isabella, an idea he had been pondering for awhile flashed into his mind, and now have been the perfect time to test it. "Isabella, I need you to demonstrate to me your mastery of continuously releasing energy." Over the two weeks spent training for the Sports Festival, that was one of the prime points Kabuto had worked on with Isabella. Isabella got ready to demonstrate her newfound skills, but wanted to clarify something. "Do you want to see a large blast or thin stream? Either way I'm good with," she said before going for the second option. She had found by bringing the energy to a point, it was much stronger than a wide blast. She pointed two fingers away from the two of them towards a pile of dried unused concrete about 100 meters away. With a breath she fired her shot, with a small concussive blast from the energy as it left her fingers and hit the dirt mound, a round hole peirced the dirt mound. She continued to fire before she got an idea."I think... I can cut it in half like this?" Isabella said as she rotated the stream to cut the concrete in half and then up towards the top to cut them into fourths. After she was done with that she stopped releasing her energy and looked at Kabuto with a triumphant look on her face. Kabuto nodded, giving Isabella a pat on the head. He seemed like a proud father for his student, Isabella, had demonstrated her mastery over this new skill of hers. His idea was finally coming together. He stopped patting her head before stepping a great distance back, leaving Isabella a large area to practice with what he was going to ask of her. "Now, up until now you've focused your energy out of one point, so I won't blame you if this proves challenging, but you will master it if my theory is correct. I want you to continuously release energy throughout the entirety of your body, more specifically like an aura." He watched closely, hoping for an interesting and successful turn out. Isabella thought for a few seconds of how to do this. She got into a balanced stance before taking a deep breath. She visualized her kinetic energy as a wave that went from her head down to her feet all around her. After a few misfires she got a primitive shell of kinetic energy cycling around her as an aura of energy. "I think I got it! At least a basic one," Isabella said holding it still. "EXCELLENT!" Kabuto's voice erupted, astonished with what she had accomplished. He knew it would take more practice and concentration to perfect, but Isabella was on a good track. She always seemed like a fast learner. "If my hypothesis is correct, you should eventually be able to "wear" the aura and use to enhance the impact behind your strikes, speed, and even use it to enhance your durability and possibly even negate kinetic attacks all together." Kabuto picked up a large rock as if it were a pebble, throwing it with full force at Isabella to see how her aura would react. Isabella wasn't surprised by Kabuto's actions. He was always one to teach in a hands-on way. She vaguely remembers an old American movie where there was a scene with a wrench that this reminded her of. Isabella stood firm, unphased by the hurdling rock heading towards her. She tried her best to keep her focus on the Kinetic barrier she had created. She felt pressure within her barrier from the rock hitting it, while Isabella was pushed back a few centimeters due to the opposing forces and loose footing. She laughed as the large rock had stopped almost dead in its tracks and hit the ground with a thud. She let go of her kinetic energy, dropping the barrier. She came to the side of the rock, and leaned against it. "That was... different. Pretty useful skill. It could help me deflect attacks other than kinetic, so Tali won't be such an issue next time," Isabella said. She doesn't want to admit it, but her losing was still a sore spot in her memory. Kabuto gave Isabella a nod. "Sometimes you need to lose to know where to improve yea? You probably wouldn't have taught about making super moves if it wasn't for that battle." Kabuto got into a battle stance, his wings sprung up from his back and began to flap followed with his body beginning to lift off the ground. "Remember, if my theory is correct, this new technique should offer you more than a barrier. We'll practice your focus and control. I want you to use that new technique throughout the entirety of our duel. If you deactivate it, then the battle is over with, got it?" Isabella was hesitant. She had just learned this new skill, and now she has to fight with it? "Do you want me to hit with my quirk as well? or just keep the new technique going as long as possible?" Isabella asked. She turned on the aura of kinetic energy once more, this time almost immediately. She definitely was a quick learner, but she was also cautious at the same time. She took a moment to study Kabuto's movements before moving in for a strike. She used a kinetic blast from her heels to propel her forward. She was aiming for Kabuto's side while feigning a strike to his face hoping to catch him off guard. Kabuto let his wings stop flapping, causing him to descend, just enough to dodge her assault. His wings suddenly began to pick up pace again, keeping him airborne. Kabuto had no plans on fighting back. Instead he was going to dodge, trying to force her to find new ways to use her new ability besides for the power it gives. According to his theory, this aura of Isabella's should also grant her increased reflexes as well as speed, allowing enhanced mobility all around. "Second rule, if you touch the ground, the spar is over and that's 100-no, 200 push-ups!" Isabella's eyes went wide, as she passed by Kabuto. She pushed out her hand and blasted energy to send her skywards. "Adding rules like that is cheap! What else can I not do?" Isabella said as she began to fall again. She had to find some sort of balance with this power. She bent her legs to let out short bursts of energy as she got closer to the ground and Kabuto, readying up another attack. "Cheap smeap!" Kabuto mocked, staring at Isabella to keep track of her movements. She'd pulled off an impressive few tricks, that blast that sent her skyward was a rather neat trick, but he knew she could do better. "Just don't touch the ground or let that aura go, got it?" Kabuto readied himself to dodge her next assault. Isabella kept her cool this time, watching carefully as she tried to predict Kabuto's next move. She blasted herself forward with the plan to sling shot herself behind him. She rocketed past his dodge as planned, and blaster kinetic energy to stop herself and reverse direction with a strong kick aimed at his back. Kabuto watched in amazement as Isabella shot passed him. He turned around to face her, quick enough to see a foot aiming towards his face. He quickly put up his arms to block the attack. Kabuto could feel the force of Isabella's Quirk through the contact. He glanced at her with astonishment, nodding at her for approval. "Guess you've passed that one." He then pushed his arms out to put a distance between Isabella and himself. "Part 2, these are the rules. Keep the aura & don't touch the ground. Objective; knock me to the ground." Isabella flipped off of Kabuto from her kick and went back to her floating maneuver. "You want me to knock you down? Hmm.." Isabella said thinking to herself. She looked around the yard for ideas. To the side of them was a horizontal pipe that was spanning between two buildings. Perfect, she thought. She floated her way over there and began to use her gymnasts skills to twirl around the bar, still with her aura on. She was in a handstand on the top of the bar, looking at Kabuto, saying, "Get ready." She began to twirl faster and faster around the bar, bending the metal as she got to he fastesr speed. She used the centrifugal force and her kinetic energy to slingshot herself at Kabuto, rotating in the air in somersaults to try and hit the man. At the rate she was going she knew that if she missed him, she'd have to try again after some push ups. Kabuto founded Isabella's use of the environment to be quite the spectacle. She was indeed a quick learner, and when given the opportunity, she had amazing wits as well. With Isabella hurtling at him with great speed, Kabuto had little time to react. He let his wings stop flapping like before, the immediate stopping of his air support caused him to descend. He timed this with Isabella's charging assault, grabbing her arm and launching her towards the ground with full force. He knew it wouldn't hurt her due to her Quirk, however if she touched the ground, she'd have a price to pay. Isabella wasn't expecting Kabuto to grab her leg. She slammed into the ground. Unhurt but her aura caused a big dent with splash damage from the aura. She let go of her aura, knowing that she hit the ground that she had to do push ups. She gave herself a chance to breathe and to relax before Kabuto ordered her punishment. Kabuto then landed next to Isabella, "When doing an attack like that, it's best to study an opponents movements, angle your trajectory to how you believe they'll move. Most importantly, be sure they can't move quick enough to dodge it." Kabuto was giving her advice, many of his attacks back in the day involved hurling himself full throttle at his enemies, so he'd known best what it takes to make such attacks succeed. "Well, an order is an order, gimme 200 push ups kiddo." Isabella got into position and began to do her push ups. "So what you are saying... is I need to work on my agility... and track my opponents better?" She asked as she did her push ups. She continued them without stopping, waiting for her teacher to answer. "Basically. After all, whats the point of lunging yourself 30 miles just to miss the entire target?" Kabuto responded, leaning against a train cart as Isabella did her push ups. "So, what's going on at school?" He aimed to strike up a conversation, although perhaps the talking while also doing a work out would help Isabella focus, at the very least, it would build up her ability to multitask. Isabella grunted in response to Kabuto's logic. "School is good. Midterms was tough but some of us went to the beach together. Ku and I built a sandcastle together, and at the end of the night there was a bonfire." Isabella said, and she got into more of a rhythm and didn't need to pause her thoughts. "Oh? Did anything interesting happen during this bonfire?" Kabuto replied in a teasing manner, as always, he was trying to pry into teenage romance, especially that of his student's. He'd loved watching them grow closer over the Sports Festival training, and now he'd found out they spent a day on the beach together. Things were just getting better by the visit. Isabella began to blush a bit from the memories. "Ku made the two of us cookies, and we sat and watched the stars," Isabella said. She was almost done with her pushups by now while trying to push her blush away. "Nothing else happened that day. Nothing to note..." she said. "Well doesn't that sound adorable!" Kabuto teased, putting on a voice as to emphasis he was messing with her. "Sure there wasn't any kissy kissy going on" Kabuto puckered up his lips, and made a kissing motion, moving his interlocked hands back and forth like the stereotypical image of a school girl in love. Isabella stopped her push ups for a moment to look at Kabuto, her face red and her cheeks puffed from embarrassment She stammered, "W-w-why would there be any kissing? Kinzoku doesn't, I mean I don't, I mean- ugh" Isabella, out of embarrasment and frustration, used her quirk for her next pushup which launched her 50 meters into the air. She flailed from suddenly being in the air. She activated her kinetic aura as she was falling, which stopped her motion and she was now floating 25 meters up. She looked down at Kabuto while yelling, "Look at this! I'm flying!" She willed herself down slowly and safely from where she stopped, landing softly. She had forgotten the embarrassing moment from before as she beamed from her accomplishment. Kabuto was beaming himself, pure pride on his face. Granted, he wasn't anticipating this outcome, especially Isabella discovering some psuedo-flight ability. Nevertheless, it was an amazing discovery. "That most certainly is something." He pondered, now curious of everything Isabella could achieve now. Isabella had an idea pop into her head at that moment. "I know what to call this move! Impulse Drive! ...Because I can move around on an impulse?" She said as she suddenly reactivated the aura, and began doing some maneuvers around the yard. Hairpin turns, sudden stops, loops into the air. quick starts to one direction and then instantly taking a tangent to another direction. She stopped in front of Kabuto out of breath. "I... need to practice... more..." She said between breaths. "Well of course you do, practice makes perfect." Kabuto stated, radiating with a light of wisdom. Although this was a common saying, something made Kabuto seem much more of an inspiration when using the phrase. "Seeing as we're working on control, I want you to run around the course I made for you and Kinzo during that two week training period. Keep your Impulse Drive going and keep a steady pace. I'll let you have a 5 minute break before you have to get to jogging." Isabella took a few more deep breaths before reaching for the water she brought. She didn't need to eat for energy quite yet, but this was still a work-out and she needed fluids. "Hey Kabuto," Isabella said after finishing her drink, "I know that a few of my friends in class seem to be getting close, and some possibly dating already... how can you tell if someone likes you or not?" She wasn't sure why she wanted to know but she was thinking about the amount of time she and Kinzoku had been spending together. Kabuto began to race through his thoughts. He himself wasn't the best at love, but one thing he did learn in all his years was that love expresses itself in many different ways. "There's never a universal way to tell if someone has a crush on you. At the end of the day, it comes down to whom that person is. Maybe they'll want to spend more time with you or give you gifts. Or they could be on the other side of the spectrum, try to pretend like they're busy and play hard to get. It always depends." He'd hoped he'd given her some advice, but could've served to confuse her at the same time without knowing. "Hmm..." was Isabella's response. She took a moment to reflect on who she was spending time with more or less recently, and the only one that seemed different in the amount of time was Kinzoku. She shook her head at the notion that he could possibly like her in any way outside of a friend. We are just training buddies, she thought before reminiscing over their time on the beach. They had a good time, shared a few intimate moments. Isabella had learned quite a bit about Kinzoku's past and had begun to want to know more. She would deny it, but she enjoyed when Kinzoku gave her attention, and that her heart had raced when they touched. At that thought, her face got beet red again and she took another drink of water. "We should keep training. What's next sensei?" Isabella said as she turned from him to put her stuff down that would get in the way of their continual spar.